Another blow made stars appear in her eyes, and Cenek’s figure was gone when she could see clearly again. If Cenek could appear in her mind, he could zero in on her location, right? She had no idea how a location spell would work, or if it even existed in the way she imagined.
Joel snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Stay with me.”
She glared at him and he laughed. “This one has some fire to her!”
He smoothed back her hair, as if she’d suddenly believe he was a reasonable man and hadn’t just beat her. She wanted to bite his fingers, but he didn’t let his hand get close to her mouth. “I like the personal touch, you know? I want to see what we’re bringing home before we get there. You understand.”
He turned back to the man who drove her there. “You gave her the dose I said?”
“Yes, sir.” He checked his watch. “Four hours ago, sir.”
Joel nodded, and addressed her. “You’ll be able to shift soon. It’s a light dose for our new guests. Full doses from here on out.”
He dragged her away from the wall to the center of the room and crouched in front of her again. He poked her with a thick finger. Jessa rocked back on her haunches but didn’t completely lose her balance. Good. She didn’t want to show the man any sign of weakness. Let him think she was crazy. Maybe she could use his wariness to her advantage.
“Come on, little bird. We know you are familiar with that lion pride, but you’re not one of them. Shift for me. You know you want to.” He taunted.
Oh, she did. She wanted to shift into a big, fire-breathing dragon and melt the skin from his bones and turn his little murder shack into a pile of ash. Her chimera just wouldn’t cooperate.
“No? Not a little bird, then. Maybe a little bunny? A pony we can ride until dawn?”
A husky laugh from one of the others chilled Jessa to the bone.
Okay, she urged her beast. Let’s get a move on. It was time to get the hell out of dodge.
The noise of a gun cocking made her look up. The driver chambered a round and held it at the ready. Her suppressed keen only made him laugh again.
Joel saw where she looked and pat her head like he rewarded an obedient dog. “Don’t you worry about that, little bird. That’s just your next dose to keep you friendly.”
That brought a growl to her lips. Voyeuristic fucks. They just wanted to see what she’d turn into, then they’d drug her again. Keep her friendly? They didn’t want her claws ripping into their asses.
She could be quick, though. They’d overplayed their hand by showing her where the threat lay. She’d hamstring the big crazy and jump right on the one with the gun.
Her revenge fantasy and escape plan formed, Jessa relaxed her shoulders and prodded at the chimera. Claws, that’s what we need. No flopping fish.
The chimera growled. It didn’t need orders for that. Jessa felt her hands start to shift. She wanted to throttle the beast for taking so long. They could burst out of their bonds and jump on their captors in the time it took for her fingers to tip with razor sharp claws. Her shift stopped and she groaned with frustration. No further help came from the chimera.
Jessa started to saw at the rope holding her hands behind her back. Maybe she could get free without Joel noticing. Maybe she could slip out when the men took their next murder stroll into the woods.
Her eyes came to rest on Hazel and baby Benny. Unless the men were going to continue offing themselves, it’d be one of their prisoners to bite it next. Even if she could get free, could she leave a woman and her child to the monsters?
Joel jerked and narrowed his eyes on her shoulder, then eased down her sleeve. Jessa’s panic took hold, but he only undressed her enough to show the mate mark on her shoulder.
“Frederick!” He roared.
The driver appeared in the doorway again, wariness clear on his face. “Yes, sir?”
Joel gestured to Jessa’s shoulder. “Did you know she’s been mated?”
“Sir?”
The stealthy one appeared behind Frederick. “It means we’ll have an extremely pissed off lion here if you were tracked.”
“Fuck,” Joel growled. His beast surged forward, and he snapped toothy jaws together before settling himself back into a human shape. He looked past Frederick to the stealthy one. “Gather everything. We need to move in case they’re on the way.”
Fuck, Jessa agreed as a syringe full of the poison was emptied into her arm. At least they didn’t shoot her.
“Your sister,” Joel spat at Hazel, “should have seen this coming. Shall we check if she can see your death?”
He turned away from Jessa just as the last strands of rope were cut through. Just in fucking time, she thought. The drug hit her system full tilt, and her hands stiffened painfully back into human shape.
Joel pulled a knife from his belt and advanced on Hazel. Her eyes widened and she tried to scoot closer to the baby. Jessa shook with fury. The woman only wanted to protect her child.
She launched herself at the man and clung to his back like a monkey. He sliced at her arms and hands with his knife, but she bit hard at his ear. He raised his hands as a howl ripped from his mouth. The knife clattered to the ground as hands turned to paws.
Jessa dropped from his back and scrambled for the knife. Her fingers snatched around the handle just as claws raked down her calves.
Joel dragged her back. She twisted in his grasp, and saw a half-formed werewolf at her feet. His hands were sharp were claws, and a misshapen muzzle poked out of his face. His fangs dripped with saliva.
The better to eat you, my dear.
The amount of hatred and loathing written in his eyes shook her to her core. He swiped at her again, and another scream was dragged from her throat when his claws sank into her thigh. She lashed out with the knife and managed to cut deep into his arm.
Joel yelped and yanked his arm back. Jessa tried to ignore the blood seeping from her wounds. She couldn’t let the man take her anywhere. She couldn’t let the man kill Hazel. She couldn’t let the man live.
She slashed blindly, hacking away at any bit of flesh that she could reach. She sliced for herself, for Lena, for every single person the man had hurt.
But it was no use. The half shifted Joel snarled at her. He snapped his jaws around her arm and shook until the knife fell from her useless fingers. Jessa felt hot tears rolling down her cheeks. Joel stalked forward, driving her backward until her back rested against the wall once more, and snapped his slavering jaws closed just in front of her nose.
Then he turned and left the room, weapon in hand once more. Jessa let out a weak sob.
The shack became a flurry of activity for the three men. Disarmed, the door shut Jessa and Hazel inside while the others gathered the traces of their presence. She heard the roar of an engine, and her heart skipped a beat before remembering how she’d been driven there. They were simply loading up the car.
A great roar lifted her spirits again. She wanted to run through the shack and scream. The lions are coming, the lions are coming!
“Frederick!” Joel roared once more. Jessa swore she felt the shack shake around them.
“We need to go. Now.” The stealthy one said. His voice sounded quiet with worry.
Steps paused near the door, but Joel snapped. His reasonable side had vanished for the ruthless and crazy one once more. Jessa felt a sick urge to preen at harming the man even a little. “Leave them. String Frederick up outside and burn this place to the ground.”
Burning. Not the way she wanted to go. She’d seen enough burn victims in the hospital to know it was a painful way to die. She almost wished Joel had closed his jaws around her neck and spilled her blood.
A wet squeal and a plop told her Frederick had likely been taken care of. She couldn’t smell anything over the coppery sting of her own blood. The outer door closed, and a fierce tattoo sounded on the walls.
Three became two.
String him up, Joel ordered. Her stomach turned at the thought of the
man being nailed to the door. The roar of the car engine faded almost as soon as the hammering stopped.
The thick smell of smoke stung her nose and throat. Crackle and pops grew louder. Was someone going to pass out the marshmallows for s’mores?
Hazel’s eyes rolled as she looked around the room. Jessa tried to stand, and fell weakly back. She tried to apologize to Hazel, but couldn’t find her voice. What a team they made. One bound woman, and another too weak to stand.
“Don’t you pass out!” Hazel yelled at her.
Jessa opened her eyes to find the woman in front of her face.
“Wake up!” She screamed again.
Jessa shook her head clear and tried to snatch back her fading attention.
“Untie me. We can get out of here.” Hazel shimmied around and lifted her bound hand as high as she could.
Baby Benny began to whine. Poor baby had been so quiet when the big bad wolf was there.
Jessa lifted her working hand to the large knots that held Hazel’s wrists together. She plucked and pulled, shaking away the haze that threatened to pull her back to unconsciousness. Or was that the smoke filling the room?
She managed to get the knots loose, but not fully undone. It didn’t matter. Hazel was made of stronger stuff than her bruises suggested. Jessa had to think hard to remember a strong lioness lurked under the poison coursing through the woman. But even if she was locked in one form, she still had some strength of the other. She strained against the loosened ropes, and struggled free.
She picked up Benny a second later.
Hazel slammed her shoulder into the door and fell through. More smoke poured through the opening. Jessa could see flames licking up the sides of the walls, flicking like the tongues of deadly dragons.
“I’ll come back for you!” Hazel called over her shoulder, and rushed out with the baby in her arms.
Jessa couldn’t care. She floated above herself. Blood still seeped from her wounds. They were deeper than she first suspected. The raking lines on her thigh were almost to the bone. Her wrist throbbed with each tiny movement of her breath moving blood through her veins, but the ache was dull as the bones started to knit themselves back together. Slowly. So slowly. She would heal faster if she could shift.
If she could shift.
That ability was hours away. Joel had made sure of that when he stuck the syringe in her arm. Her defense mechanism gone, the room filling with smoke, she shut her eyes and thought of Sam.
Her beautiful Sam. Tall, dark, and handsome, just the way she liked. He even managed to rock a cowboy hat, even if he was a fraud of a cowboy. And underneath all that carefully cultivated exterior was a sensitive, kind, person who worked every day to not let his scars control him.
Dark chocolate and fire, sweetness and spice, that was her Sam. She hoped he would have the courage to go on after this, and not lose hope like his father. He was surrounded by his chosen family, as ridiculous and varied as they were. The pride wouldn’t let him down like she had.
Sam. Sam. Sam.
She whispered the name and savored the last flavors of it on her tongue. She loved him. She hated that it’d taken kidnappings and maulings to bring her there, but it was a truth she could no longer deny. He was her mate. He was perfect. He was her Sam.
Jessa’s eyes slipped closed.
After
Sam busied himself with boiling water to steep the coffee grounds waiting in the French press. It gave him time to think, and to channel his anger back inside him. He didn’t dare show it to Jessa. She only blamed herself.
The pride had roared around the shack, following the directions Cenek managed to pry from his mate and the smell of fresh blood. Smoke streaming into the sky and the disemboweled body on the door were certainly more helpful than street signs.
But the men who hurt Jessa—and the woman and child they found with her—those monsters were gone. They fled into the night like cowards. What could he expect from someone so hateful and got his start hunting down werewolves, though?
From what Jessa had told them, he was working toward a larger purpose. One that struck the chords of fear and anger inside him.
AmWo was no more. Now the hunters were simply Protectors. They wanted to protect humanity from the threat of the otherworld. They were mad dogs with angelic guidance if the rumors could be believed.
The man lured in shapeshifters with chips on their shoulders. They were shifters who felt wrong, members of the otherworld who thought they should be on a pedestal for humans to worship at their feet, and those who simply wanted a way back to normalcy. The man took all the outcasts and turned them into killers.
Sam paced across the floor of the kitchen. Even now, with several members of the pride trying to find their way into the organization, Sam wanted to let his lion loose and hunt the man in charge of it all. He’d almost lost Jessa to his wicked plans, and the man needed to pay.
But he wouldn’t leave Jessa’s side. She wouldn’t leave her home, unless it was to go to the pride house. She’d taken a leave of absence from work, citing a car accident and needing time to recover. Her wounds had healed, though the first few hours had been truly frightening. But her mind was still stuck in a dark and tragic place.
The creak of the back gate snapped Sam’s attention out the window. His body relaxed by inches when he saw Cenek saunter across the yard, a bundle of flowers in his hand. He didn’t go to the door, and Sam wasn’t surprised to see what held the warlock’s focus.
Hazel sat in the rocking swing. Benny was on her lap. Hazel also refused to leave Jessa’s side. She bit back a smile when Cenek seated himself next to her.
Sam brought the steaming cup of coffee upstairs. He found Jessa curled up in a chair near the window, watching the scene on the swing. He paused at the door to quietly study his mate.
Hazel had started to drag Jessa out of the shack by the time the lion pride arrived. Her dress had caught fire, and the poor woman just couldn’t drag Jessa to safety and keep her from burning. So she’d chosen to drag. That his mate had suffered at all made him want to growl, but he owed Hazel for saving her life.
Jessa was clad only in a long robe. Sam swallowed hard when he saw it gaping open at the top. She was still sore, she claimed, and didn’t like anything touching her burn marks. Her shoulders had matching scars now; one side a bite mark from his claiming and the other mottled from the fire.
Her blonde hair was shorter, too, trimmed up at the ends where the fire had started to burn away the strands. Lena had called it the latest trend in high fashion, and Jessa had smirked.
Sam held on to every brief flash of humor in her eyes, and every slight lift of her lips. Jessa was full of piss and vinegar at the best of times, but he preferred that pain to the pain of seeing her as a shadow of herself. It was like witnessing his father’s downfall all over again.
He didn’t know how she’d pull through. Lena said there was nothing to worry about, and to let Jessa settle herself. It was just so hard to see his mate in pain.
“Sam.”
Jessa turned to him, and he saw a true smile on her face for the first time in weeks. She held out her hand and beckoned him forward.
Sam crossed the threshold into the room and set the coffee on the nearest surface. His mate had returned.
***
Today was the day, Jessa decided. She was done with moping around and trying to find a reason for why everything happened. She had no reason. No one did. Bad things happened, and the only thing to do was get on with her life.
Her life with Sam.
His arms wrapped around her waist when she stood from her chair and peeked out the window. She purred softly at the feel of him wrapping her up in himself. He was safe, and he made her safe.
The man had barely left the house since she returned from the brink of death. She thought his dedication sweet at first, even found comfort in his constant presence. But sometimes a girl just wanted to eat ice cream in bed and binge on shitty movies without a poorly
hidden eye roll and sigh.
She’d healed, physically. Only pink scars remained to tell the tale of her ordeal. It’d be a long time before she rocked shorts outside of the house again, but she’d get there.
The Protectors were being hunted. Ethan was quietly looking into her claims about Nephilim involvement. They would want solid evidence of collusion before accusing the otherworld overlords, and the ravings of a madman didn’t fit the standard needed. Cenek was staying on with the pride to help, though Jessa suspected that had more to do with Hazel than the goodness of his heart.
Hazel… She had quickly wormed her way into everyone’s heart. She proved her goodness when she pulled Jessa from the burning structure. They were captives together, and that bonded them together. Jessa had gladly opened her home to the woman and her child. She was another reminder of why the Protectors needed to be hunted and dismantled. Her sister was still their prisoner, along with who knew how many others.
Jessa watched Hazel and Cenek on the swing. Cenek took Benny from Hazel and bounced him on his knee while the woman rolled her shoulders and settled her head against his shoulder. “Do you think he knows?”
Sam startled at Jessa’s question. “Hmm?”
“How much trouble he’s in for? Mates are no easy thing, fated or not.”
Sam tightened his arms around her and he pressed his nose into her neck. His exhale sent a thrill down her spine. “And here I thought you were firmly in the ‘no such thing as fate’ camp.”
She turned into his arms and pecked his cheek. “I’ve had some convincing lately. Near death experiences will do that to a girl.”
Sam growled. “Don’t you scare me like that again.”
“Or you’ll what? Spank me?”
“Don’t give me any ideas.”
She drew her nails down his arms. He was in his comfy clothes, had been since he practically moved into her townhouse. She wondered if he liquefied and poured himself into a t-shirt mold every morning. She certainly appreciated it, no matter how he managed to get the tight material over his strong chest.
Embracing Her Lion: BBW Lion Shifter Paranormal Romance (Carver City Shifters Book 2) Page 9